‘Learned helplessness’ (a term coined by Martin Seligman, the eminent psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania), refers to what happens if rewards and punishments are not tied to merit. “People simply give up and stop trying to succeed,” so writes Arthur Brooks in The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise.
This learned helplessness is the model in social-democratic Spain and most all of Europe. Moreover, learned helplessness is the reason they remain stuck in recession, with the Eurozone falling apart, unemployment at 24 percent and higher, youth giving up trying to find work, and half of the people up to age 35 still living with their parents.
The earned success model, on the other hand, is obviously the model of the United States, and it has been actively promoted by all modern presidents, both Republican and Democrat.
Now, this simple cultural imperative is being subjected to a full-on assault and punishment scheme organized right from the Oval Office. Barack Obama has put his imprimatur on a new playbook. He’s telling every business in America, and every worker in America, that he prefers the socialism of Old-Europe and the learned helplessness of old-Europe. Why?
The two reasons, as best we can tell, are first, Obama naturally believes in wealth distribution models over wealth creation models. He said so with his “spread the wealth” answer to Joe the Plummer in 2008. Second, Obama is so desperate to get re-elected and feels a need to pander to the most radically wrong elements of this base. Neither reason is an endorsement of his second-term leadership capabilities.
John Hawkins offers a colorful view of this inhospitality to business: “When Uday Hussein used to run Iraq’s soccer team, players who performed poorly were slapped, spit on, and beaten with electric cables until the blood flowed. This is similar to how liberals treat American businesses. They demonize them, raise their taxes, bury them in new regulations, make it easier to sue them, and harass them with regulatory agencies at every turn. Then, they become puzzled as to why those same businesses aren’t creating jobs or are looking to move more of their business overseas. You can’t cut the sparrow’s throat and fry it up for dinner and listen to it sing at the same time.”
Or, to extend Hawkins’ metaphor, you can’t isolate the sparrow in a cage and expect it to grow and multiply. And what is the guiding hand of a government bureaucrat but a cage. Sure, it keeps the business from flying away (until the door is opened). In the meantime, the business lives in a state of anxiety, not knowing what to expect. It could lose profits via new taxes. It could see huge new expenses because of regulations. It could have projects shut down by the EPA. It could face huge lawsuits for spurious reasons. It could be crippled by labor union strikes. On and on from multiple directions, the painful assaults fly and attack businesses trapped in the government cage.
The business lives in a state of anxiety long enough, and it tends to become cautious and freezes. It doesn’t hire. It doesn’t expand. As Hawkins quips, “It hordes cash to make sure that it doesn’t get wiped out by some arbitrary decision made by a government official who has never so much as run a lemonade stand in his life.”
Or it takes an entirely different tact. After a while, when the earned success model dies, learned helplessness kicks in, and the battered sparrow learns to survive by sucking off the public teat. To stay alive, the business gears up its lobbying efforts and discovers which of the palms in Washington need the most greasing.
Photo credit: terrellaftermath
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If the residentsof the US have not figured out that 60% of the Congress, Senate, Judiciary, Military officers and Panetta are all Marxist Fascists of Lenin including Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Panetta, Reid, et al should all be shot for Treason, and the Intentional Destruction of the US Republic including the murder of Millions of Civilians worldwide????????
Too many US folks are too stupid to go figure anything at all about obama and his cohorts! Too many want their "stuff" and obama provides it via tax payer dollars. What happens to the USA is no concern to the
free loaders. A dirty shame, huh?
If I were starving, I would be too proud to take food stamps, etc., etc., etc., but the said above types believe they are entitled to live off the backs of those that work — not everyone is wealthy, "Free Loaders" and some of us that work or have previously earned their keep are sick of your whinning and needs — get off your A– and earn your way!
Obama is now wanting to supply stimulas for mavhinest and opther small bussinesses he wants to help run all business in the U.S. what a jerk.
He should look at the way the car manufacturing came out,TRUTHFULLY,not the way he immagines,for the results he clamed on the tv add is not true.
But I have yet to see Obama tell the truth about anything, he is a constant liar.
He hates anything and anyone American. He hates America for his own personal, twisted, perverted, and sick reasons. He has no love of anyone except for himself. He is a being who looks in the mirror each day, and tells the creature looking back at itself, “I love you so much. You are wonderful. You must show others how wonderful and great you really are. They will understand if you tell them enough times, and for long enough. And, they do not need to know whether you are telling them the truth or lies, all they need to know is that you have their “best interests” at heart”. And, his idea of “best interests at heart” is for him to control every aspect of our lives. In other words, he, the SLAVE MASTER, and WE ARE THE SLAVES! If the black people of today resent the fact that their ANCESTORS were slaves, then they by rights, should be EXTREMELY UPSET at the prospect of themselves being SLAVES to another, and THIS TIME, one of “almost” their OWN RACE!!!!!! Now, ain’t that a real kicker, a kick in the teeth!!!! I’d laugh, but it’s too close to the truth to be funny!!!
Sweden and the false myth that socialism/Marxism is so great when it isn't:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dieteman/dieteman33.ht…
Shameful! Despicable! Your mamma wouldn't be proud of you Barrack Obama!
America sure isn't!